You were walking back to the village, your 'home base' as you liked to call it. With the quest finished and your friends logging off to do some of their real world responsibilities, you figured that you should do some work yourself. While your friends have to go to physical offices, you, on the other hand, could work from the comfort of your own home inside the world of Nornyr.

Having a work at home job was great, especially since you could also work inside your virtual home inside your pod which was inside you real home. Bills needed to be paid, which included the installments for the quite expensive JYE pod, so you had to work; it was fortunate that you were able to land a work at home job with a flexible schedule.

As you entered the village, the NPCs waved at you and greeted you. A simple human village. Almost all of the storyline quests in the town was singlehandedly finished by you; storyline quests being those quests that permanently changed a setting in Nornyr, in contrast to quests which you or other players could repeatedly do. You already achieved max intimacy with everyone here and was sort of like the protector of this village.

A quaint little village. Nothing special here. There were some quest items here but there were way better quest items in other places. No hidden powerful classes or skills. No special pets, no special craftsmen, no nothing. The only place of interest for players in the town was the merchant store. They could sell their loot, but not so much because the merchant didn't have plenty of money to buy high-level items. Low-quality potions were also sold in the store.

Players rarely visited this place because only a few people knew about its location. And mostly high-level players reached this area so they do not have any interest in the village because it gave them no benefits. Once in a while a party would come by to rest or maybe admire the scenery around the village, but they rarely stayed for long.

There was an area some distance from the village which players frequented. A wide desert. Only a few monsters lived there. It was hard to find them and their spawn rate was really low. However, many people went there because the monsters were all mini-bosses full of rare loot. Another reason for going there was that it was a designated PK or player kill area. In addition to that, it was also an area where you could steal an item from the body of the player you killed. An area with those two features activated would surely attract many hardcore players.

Players who wanted to hunt the monsters in the desert would always form a party for their own protection against the PKers. Although the village was the nearest NPC settlement to the desert, people didn't visit it because it wasn't in the shortest route to get to the desert. That and there was nothing to do in the village.

You toured the village to check if there were any players today.

No one.

It was good that no one came to ruin your peace and quiet. You walked towards your house, a very big house by the lakeside, which you were able to buy because of your high intimacy with the village.

You were half expecting some players to visit your village because of some rumors you heard a few days ago.

There was a lot of traffic on the path leading to the desert this past week. Even more than what was usual. A group of players you met on the way to your village told you that they were mercenaries hired by a guild to take out some really strong guy who kept on killing everyone in the desert. He was wandering the desert solo but he was able to survive out there for so long even though there were many PKers and boss monsters around.

The problem was that he always killed anyone he saw and that was bound to eventually piss off some strong people. So now, there was a massive manhunt going on in the desert. Most of the players who came for the high rewards didn't know the way there. The group of players you met was lost. You directed them to the right direction. You realized that there would be other groups of PKers who were coming and the might wander to your village.

You realized that there would be other groups of PKers who were coming and the might wander to your village.

PK wasn't allowed in the village but you didn't want them to make your village as their base before going to the deserts. This was your own private place, a silent sanctuary in the vast world of Nornyr. You hoped that they would catch that person they wanted so that everything would be back to normal.

After a couple of minutes walk from the village the end of the village, you arrived at your house. You looked up at your expensive house. Maybe you could buy some pets to make it lively. Or get some NPC servants. You let out a sigh of content. Time to get to work. You always wanted to work by the lakeside.

It was a magical lake. It was cursed before but you managed to lift the curse so it went back to being full of life and magic. All of the quests connected to the lake were completed as far as you could tell. Beautiful plant life fringed the lake, benefitting from its magical energies.

You froze.

There was someone near the lake.

It wasn't an NPC. was displayed above the person. A player. A player with high end armor

The player looked like a centaur, but way bigger than the centaur players that you have encountered.

Didn't those mercenaries say that they were hunting a player that looked like a centaur? Was this him?

You started to walk closer to the player who was absentmindedly staring at the lake. What else did those mercenaries say about him? The horns! He had many horns. And tusks. You couldn't make out the face of the player because he was not facing you but you were sure that he had plenty of horns. And the tusks. Were there any tusks?

As you got nearer, the player turned around.

He had tusks.

You wondered what was he going to say. What was he doing here? He would surely bring those guilds who were looking for him. Your peaceful village would be turned upside down. Maybe you should tell him to go back to the desert.

He walked towards you, about to say something. You held your breath as you waited for him to speak.

Then he said, "...

...

...

...

...

What will you do next?